Ghetto Palms: New Serani / Day Rave Riddim / Ragga Soca / Kwaito / Mad Different Stuff

August 07, 2008



Every week resident FADER selector Eddie STATS runs through dancehall riddims and other artifacts from the ghetto archipelago.



Ok, it’s official. My collection of micro-genres has splintered into such tiny factions that they are starting to melt together into one Ghetto Palms
macro-genre. Which is just another way to say I love it when dudes speed up dancehall into ravers, pitch down house into kwaito and split the difference with ragga soca. All in the same week!




Day Rave Plus Blend:

Serani, “Wine My Girl” (remix)

Day Rave Version

Matterhorn, “Never Stop”

Busy Signal, “Mek She Stamma”

Mr. Easy, “Screw Pan Face”

Aidonia “Gyal Say Woooiii”

Elephant Man & DingDong “Dip Again”

Mavado, “Real Killa”

DJ Mujava, “Township Funk”

Kenyatta, “Diggy”

Kardinal Offishal ft. Akon, “Dangerous”

DJ Cleo, “Wena”




Download: Ghetto Palms Day Rave Plus Blend




That being the case thought I’d go with micro-paragraphs, since I’ve got limited space and a number of bullets (bullet!) to get off my textual chest. Actually I guess the internet has unlimited space, technically, but you know what I’m saying.



-Firstly, I must once again lick dem with the rod of correction: Johnny Wonder pointed out that the Sweep/Self Defence column from GP#16 mistakenly attributed two tunes from Bembe selector Jigsy to '90s deejay Jigsy King. Different Jigsy.


-Johnny wonder is kind of a one-man dancehall promo army, blasting out new music plus tidbits of news and commentary like ALL CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST MAVADO IN COURT THE SINGER FREE UP! MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD! BIG UP MY SINGER!!


-Also the mp3s all say things like SSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCCKKKKKKK
In the comments field.

-Which brings me to the dancehall ALL CAPS micro-graph. I know Jamaicans are an expressive people…who shoots off guns in the air just cause they’re happy? (A: Yosemite Sam. Pashtun tribesmen. Monday night crowd in Kingston.) But what’s with reposting MySpace Bullet! Bullet!ins for your soundclash/mixtape/party so many times with so many exclamation points that it squeezes out all my other bulletins? It’s like if you cant buss a gun or drag a needle across a record at ear-splitting volume to make your point you have to launch a denial of service attack and shut down the whole internet.


-Just to clarify, this is not aimed at Johnny. I’m not naming any names (Black Chiney) but that shit is wild annoying.


-Serani, “Wine My Girl”: For a dude who is only a solo artist in Japan and YouTube, Serani might just be the brightest star in dancehall right now, and the most likely to cross-over. Maybe in this 2008 millennium, Japan and YouTube is all you need to go platinum.


-Stephen McGregor, “Day Rave” riddim: dude is such a genius his middle name is actually “Di Genius.”


-DJ Mujava “Township Funk.” I will of course get around to a Township Palms kwaito column but I thought I’d do a sneak peek since this Mujava track—which actually inspired the original kwaito pitch that led to FADER’s Africa-issue feature—is about see a global 12-inch release on Warp records. A clear case of Township gone to the world.


-Kenyata, “Diggy”: Trinidad needs more tracks like this Jus Buss banger.


-DJ Cleo “Wena”: I’ve been bumping this evil-sounding joint from kwaito feature star DJ Cleo on YouTube for weeks but Johan from Radioclit finally laced me with the real thing this past week, so it had to go in.


-Lastly in the spirit of non-musical Ghetto Palmistry I thought I would include this news item been making rounds on New York’s media channels about cancer-curing extremophile microbes growing in Brooklyn’s (stanky!) Gowanus canal.

From The Collection:

Ghetto Palms
Posted: August 07, 2008
Ghetto Palms: New Serani / Day Rave Riddim / Ragga Soca / Kwaito / Mad Different Stuff